Friday, January 20, 2006

God did teaching feel good today. After two weeks of not teaching kids I was ready to hunt them down in the grocery store. Do you want to draw with me little boy? (said in my evil deranged cookie voice.)

My ten hour day felt like an hour and a half. The thing about teaching a wide age range of kids is that sometimes you get the whole family, which is an incredibly cool thing. My classes at the community center go from preschool to junior high. I have students that can’t wait to turn three just so they can come and paint with me. Sadly, I think I'm one of the major toilet training rewards in South Minneapolis;)

Yesterday Alice turned three, yesterday Alice ran at me full force, threw her body against my knees and said, Weeza I’m here. Her sister Sarah, who is six and also my student told me, She’s been waiting her WHOLE life to do this.

What have you been waiting your whole life for?

My kids teach me how to love. Everyday they teach me how to create. Everything in my life is changing lately. Things are beginning and ending. I’m trying to work through all the legalities of custody with my girls. I’m trying to get all the financial crap that I didn’t deal with when I left my husband, out of the way. I’m trying to buy/sell a house. I am not good at any of these things. Okay, so I’m horrible.

But today I could teach. I could be in a room full of children and paint---It was glorious.

1 comment:

I love teaching as much as I love writing, playing my violin. And it is an art, to be a good teacher, to understand the delicate balance between pushing information into and nurturing a child (or adult.)

True teachers (like you) know how rare and important it is to teach, especially children. That they will take not only what you teach them but how you approach them into their entire lives.

I can't tell you how many people I have met who don't remember much of their childhood education, but these people always remember at least one teacher who sparked them at an important time.